Planning a wedding is stressful. Imagine planning a wedding at a venue you haven’t seen (with your own eyes…internet photos don’t count) because you choose to have a destination wedding on a budget and can’t simply fly there to scope-out the place! My stress and anxiety levels were pretty crazy the last few months before the wedding but it was all unwarranted because the venue turned-out to be amazing! I don’t regret having a destination wedding one bit. It was special, small, and very memorable.

The White Pony we named “Baloney Pony”

Sheep!

The place we got married is in a town called Athy (pronounced At-ii or At-ie) just outside downtown. The house is a 300 year-old mansion called The Bert House (also known as The Deburgh Manor) that comes with 15 rooms, a dinning room, drawing-room, two bars (one in the basement), a commercial-grade kitchen, and so much more! We joked about it being haunted and that the basement rooms were perfect for “murders.” It would be the absolute perfect place to have a raucous game of clue! If anyone is looking for a large house to have a wedding or just to centralize a large group for a trip to Ireland, I highly recommend this place. It was an hour from Dublin (45 minutes via train) and was within reasonable driving distance from several wonderful day trips.

We really enjoyed day trips! We did a day trip to either Kilbeggan Distillery & Tullamore D.E.W. or Wicklow Glendalough Monastic Site was really fun. We also did the long drive to the Cliffs of Moher and that was quite memorable. Horse back riding when you are in Ireland is also really fun.